Case Studies Civil

As companies grow larger, there is often a danger that employees will feel disconnected with upper management. “I think everyone needs something that motivates them to come to work and be part of an organization,” says Stan Sugden, president of Ruekert & Mielke Inc. (R/M), a 71-year-old civil engineering firm with offices throughout Wisconsin and […]

Standing on the manicured lawn of the Brightview senior living development in Canton, Massachusetts, it’s hard to imagine that just a few years ago, the same plot of land was a pit of sand and gravel. Today, a stately, three-story, 167,000-square-foot building stands there, surrounded by carefully landscaped grounds, courtyards and a quarter-mile walking path […]

When, in 2010, Shane Hinson was asked to run Ed Wallace Construction (EWC), he saw an opportunity to help the small full-service pipeline construction company discover new markets in the Southeast. At the time, Hinson was the director of operations at a much larger general contracting company in North Carolina, “and the market was prime […]

With three powerhouse women at its helm, Mid Atlantic Maintenance Inc. says it wouldn’t have achieved the success it has without its DBE, or Disadvantaged Business Enterprise certification. Mid Atlantic Maintenance Inc., or MAM, is a pavement maintenance, road striping and traffic control contractor serving West Virginia and Ohio. If you’ve driven in any part […]

For decades, if a truck passed under a concrete bridge with low clearance and hit one of the support beams, there was a standard fix. Depending on the severity of the damage, the struck section would be cut out and removed, a new beam lowered or hoisted in place and welded in. There’s a new […]

When big box stores, like Walmart or Menards, build a new location, erecting the steel framework is one of the most dangerous and time-consuming parts of the process. Entire construction crews have to work dozens of feet in the air, welding panels and structural steel. Even though this is how the industry has operated for […]

Few things make a person feel vulnerable like working on a paving crew. The only breeze under the beating sun may come from speeding traffic, and the only shade may be from the heavy machinery laying hot asphalt. At least, that’s how it looks from the outside. But according to one of Ohio’s largest paving contractors, […]

In an industry where speeding traffic, multi-ton machinery and exposure to extreme elements adds to the usual construction hazards, a company is known for its safety. In 2016, Thompson-Arthur Paving and Construction reached 4 million man-hours without a single lost-time incident; that is, over the course of about 10 years, the company didn’t have a […]

It takes one to know one, as kids on the playground often cry. But for civil engineering firm, ADR & Associates, the phrase isn’t derisive and, in fact, it describes the firm’s relationship to general contractors. Founders, civil engineering students and business partners, Doug Mill and Russ Krock, started the firm in Newark, Ohio, in […]

When it comes to wastewater infrastructure, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gives the U.S. a D+. According to ASCE, 76 percent of the population relies on the nation’s 14,748 wastewater treatment plants, which it calls “the most basic and critical infrastructure systems for protecting public health and the environment.” That wastewater infrastructure is […]